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Virginia and Beatrice descended as soon as she entered the camp. Rojan dropped her hand and went off to whisper with Baub and Viktel.
“What happened? Why are you all disheveled?” Virginia brushed something out of her hair. “Grass? A twig? What is this? Did you fall?”
“He tackled me,” she whispered. “On purpose, I think. Oh, he pretended he thought I was a Puritan he was chasing, but I think he just wanted to feel me up.”
Beatrice’s hand was over her mouth. “Joy, you can’t let him touch your holy vessel.”
“Oh, I am going to let him,” she assured her sister. “I have a plan. We seduce the bounty hunters.”
Virginia narrowed her eyes. “No. We have to hold them at bay until so we figure out what they arranged with the Mayor’s Council.”
“I thought we wanted to be human? Well, humans explore each other. That’s why the human women gave us those toys.”
“No, you want to be human, Joy. But this is beyond wanting to change who you are. This is willingly becomingly a slut.”
All three mouths dropped at the word the crazy Wilma, the scariest Puritan of them all, would have used.
“Did you just say that?” Joy asked.
“Well, I meant it. You’re not acting like yourself. Yes, it’s nice that we’re getting extra attention, but we can’t let it go to our heads. We need to keep things clear to find out what they’re up to.”
“I am keeping a clear head. And this way, by keeping him dangling, I don’t have to have my sisters get involved with their men. Do you think it’s going to be easy to come up with excuses to not let them between our thighs?”
“I know,” Tris said. “Why don’t we stick close together and break up any little excursions before things can get too heated? If Virginia’s gone a while, I’ll go looking for them. And vice versa.”
“That’s a great idea,” Virginia said. “If and when we seduce them—one day—it’ll be on our terms. Not on theirs. And we’re going to have them so ready and willing, they’ll walk through hot coals to get to our prized honey caverns.”
They were quiet suddenly as Rojan approached. “Everything all right?” he asked, eyes curious.
“Yes. The girls were just worried about Mollificent.”
“Here they come now,” Baub said.
The two came trekking down the trail as different as night and day. Joy uttered more sinful curses, though mental this time. She should have thought to tell Molli not to appear too eager. Her mouth moved constantly as if she was babbling incessantly, while Hekek appeared morose at her side.
Into the camp area she fluttered like a flighty bird. Molli never noticed Hekek’s lack of enthusiasm, approaching her sisters to bestow a flourished kiss on their cheeks as if she’d been away for weeks. She wore a white lace veil that covered her eyes. Underneath the veil lay the brand new bangs that swept over her forehead. And with Hekek as unreceptive as he was, there was no issue of him brushing the hair over her head like Rojan might with her. Joy felt safe that Molli wouldn’t be uncovered.
“My darling Jo, so good to see you,” Molli said, fluttering her lashes as she leaned in for an air kiss. “You must be Rojan, taking such good care of my sister.”
Rojan took the hand she extended, and bent to kiss her fingers. “Mollificent,” he murmured. “It’s nice to finally meet you. Would you like something to drink? I’m sure Hekek will be more than happy to get you something,” he said.
“Of course. Let me do that,” Hekek said, backing away.
“Halt,” Rojan said.
But Hekek was already long gone.
“Excuse me, ladies,” Rojan said and rushed after him. Viktel and Baub smoothly carted Virginia and Tris out to the dance area, where the little purple babies were dancing like hooligans.
“Yours is almost as handsome as mine,” Molli whispered, leaning in.
“Hekek isn’t yours yet,” Joy reminded her. “It takes work to make a relationship. Don’t assume.”
“I’m not.” But her lower lip pouted.
They were interrupted by Tristan’s approach, with another male in tow. “Ladies, please meet Lathet. He is part of the Citrine Seven crew. Lathet, my mate’s human cousins, Mollificent and Josie.”
“Good day to you, sir,” Molli said, curtsying.
Since her sister was being so formal, Joy followed her lead and curtsied also.
“Human. That is a fascinating race,” Lathet said, as he curtsied back. He reached out and took Molli’s hand, kissing each one of her fingers. Then he turned and did the same to Joy.
“We couldn’t believe it when your females were discovered. To think, your race only had space travel for about a hundred years. And that you still traveled by freight vessels.”
“We thought we were pretty advanced for our planet.” Joy smiled.
“Each of your females looks different. And yet you are all beautiful. That is a rarity.”
Molli’s smile grew wider. “Thank you. Such a charming man,” she murmured. “Will you be staying long on Hesprii?”
“We are staying a few weeks. Now that the Quakers and Herbasnuts are out of each other’s hair, we have some downtime and will use it to take much-needed vacations.”
From across the way, children screamed. Titi was poised on top of a roof, her tiny, paper-thin wings extended and ready to fly. Tristan took off like a blast. In one leap, he jumped onto the roof and grabbed the daredevil, yanking her close to his massive chest.
“Titi!” Lara yelled, running up to the small shed. “What are you thinking? You could have been killed.”
“It sounded like a fun idea to live planet life for a while,” Lathet said, his eyes on the scene along with everyone else. “Everyone’s been talking about it. But it seems a bit harder than they think.”
“I think it has its own rewards,” Joy said. “Titi’s just a handful.”
Lara and Tristan dragged Titi back to where the adults were sitting, Tristan holding her next to his massive chest and not letting her go, even as she wriggled and squirmed.
“Aww. Sir!” Titi said.
“Your punishment is to stay stuck to me all evening,” he warned.
“But Titi not going to fly!”
“Why were your wings extended, missy?” Lara asked.
“Titi going to peee!”
“On a roof?!” Lara snapped.
“Yesss?”
Joy turned her attention back to Molli and Lathet.
“Maybe since you know the planet,” he said, “you can show some of us around?”
“I’d love to,” Molli squealed. “And you all can tell me about some of the other planets you’ve visited.”
“We’ve lived our lives in space, visiting trading posts mostly. But I can tell you of other species we’ve met.”
“I’m sure I’d find it fascinating,” Molli said, placing her hand on his bicep. Not even Joy could miss the way his muscles flexed beneath her fingers.
“Lathet.” From behind her, Rojan practically spat the name. Next to him, Hekek looked insulted by Molli’s infatuation with the huge warrior. Apparently, indifference didn’t count if there was another eligible man around because he suddenly looked possessive over Molli.
“Rojan! Hekek. I didn’t know your crew had docked here,” Lathet said, rather good-naturedly.
“Yes,” Rojan said pointedly. “We were here first.”
“Is that so?” Lathet’s eyes narrowed.
“Oh, we were just making Lathet feel welcome. I know what it’s like to be the new kid on the block.” Molli giggled, rubbing her hand up and down his forearm.
“Mollificent, here is your drink,” Hekek snapped, handing her drink across her so she had no choice but to use the hand that was touching Lathet receive it.
“Why, thank you, Hekek.” Her smile was wide.
Son of a galaxy. Molli was playing the men off each other. Her sister was catching up. Joy suddenly felt proud of her.
Molli winked.
Hekek looked more than pleased that Molli’s hand was now removed from Lathet’s arm.
“Molli, would you like to dance?” Hekek asked.
Before she could answer, Lathet cut in. “I was going to ask her to dance!”
Molli giggled. “I’m sure we can all dance together. Hekek in front of me, Lathet at my back. We can coordinate movements...”
Joy couldn’t believe the audacity of her sister, to try to take two men on. And holy stars, the hell if she’d let Molli bypass her in the relationship area. Especially with the other two telling her she’d breached slut status. “Sorry, that won’t work,” she said sweetly. “Whatever will you do with your drink?”
“Yes, I cannot ask you to hold it,” Molli said, with a bit of censure in her voice as if it would be empty upon her return.
Joy gaped. She’d gone from slut to lush.
“I’m sure Lathet wouldn’t mind holding your drink while we dance,” Hekek said smoothly, taking her drink and pushing it at Lathet, who had no choice but to accept it. “After all, I should have first dance, since I came with you.”
“Perhaps I should be the one to take her home,” Lathet growled. “Therefore getting last dance.”
Molli giggled as Hekek pulled her away to get near the speakers to dance. Bajoc and Marcie joined them, their infant daughter strapped to Bajoc’s chest. “May I?” Rojan asked, indicating the baby.
Bajoc nodded eagerly, removing little Lily from her sling and handing her to Rojan. He carefully carried her the few feet over to Joy.
“She’s so perfect,” he cooed. “I can’t believe I have a real, live nutling in my hands.”
Come to think of it, he did carry her rather awkwardly. His large palms more than covered her tiny head and rump, and he held her pushed away from his body like an offering. Poor Lily kicked her scrawny legs out.
“Here, closer to your body. They like warmth.” Joy pushed his arms in, and Lily reached out to touch him.
“She’s so sweet. And her hair is so soft and fuzzy.”
Joy smiled. His face was alight with wonder. Suddenly she felt warm and her heart began to thump in her chest. What would it be like? To be one of the human mothers with a tiny Freijian baby?
Would her baby resemble Lily? But perhaps with golden red hair, instead of the white-blonde.
“Jo? Jo? Are you okay?” Rojan sounded worried.
She shook herself from the ridiculous fantasy. What was she even thinking? She didn’t want kids. Not now. H. E. Double hockey sticks. She had too much life to live, a life that she was going to mold as she became the perfect, fun-loving human woman.
“Sorry, I was just thinking.”
“About what?”
“That you’d make a good father,” she said. “What were your parents like?”
“I did not have parents. On my planet, you are created. There are donations from others, what we would call the parental units. DNA is manipulated for certain traits and the new being that is created is lined up with lifelong goals and careers depending on which traits they were given. I was chosen, like all the other warriors here, to police the galaxy. But in addition to that, I have developed sniper skills. And I am an excellent tracker in my field.”
“That’s a different way of doing things. I guess I can see why the Helian Six crew broke the mold.”
“Yes. To have created their own offspring is unheard of. And to actually care for them. To nurture them naturally instead of allowing them to be grown to adulthood before waking their consciousness.”
“Perhaps your whole planet will make a change.”
He snorted. “If change is coming, it won’t be done swiftly enough for my generation to ever see it. We have evolved this way over countless generations. We certainly won’t see the change coming during our lifetime. Now tell me about your childhood.”
Joy caught herself just before spilling the beans. She had to change the story up a bit at the last minute. “I was born to a prestigious human family on Eea-Urth. The reason why my family was prestigious? Good looks and we have a ton of money. Not that it was earned over the generations. Well, in a way, I guess you could say it was earned. You see, my family is known as a breeder.”
His hand turned sharply toward her, but she continued to look straight ahead.
“Every generation, a beautiful child is born. She’s considered sweet, meaning she doesn’t display any of the normal infant traits. Colic, illness, etc. So this special girl is given to others to raise. She has a special education and is reared to be of service to others. In return, the family gets a ton of new wealth. And in the next generation, it is done all over again.”
“You?” he asked, his voice strangled.
“Of course not! She laughed it off. “Would I be standing here telling you about it if it were me? No, of course, it is a sister I never met. But that means that someone in the next generation will have a child borne that someone can step in and take away. Either me or one of my remaining siblings. I was more than ready to take this trip. I’m not even sure if I wish to return to Ear-th. I know I should be grateful to have been raised with such wealth, but I can’t help but feel sorrow for the way it was earned.”
“So Marcie? Her family was one of these breeders?”
“No, it was mine. But she took pity on me and allowed me to visit her on this planet to decide whether or not I wished to return to the life...I was born to.”
“Can’t you just refuse to sell the child if it is born to you?”
“No. We have a generational contract. If a child is determined sweet, she is automatically taken. The parent is actually proud to give her up. We are taught that we must consider how the majority lives so fruitfully with the benefit of extra money. And that the child will have a much better life. But unless you are that child...no one really knows, do they?” She was so caught up in the lie...yet it was real. She was that child, the Puritan given up to ensure she would be pure. Her family had already received a huge sum of money and would receive even more when she married the Quaker who held the most status within the community. She would be obligated to give her parents another payout so they may continue living their lives in the wealthy role they’d gotten used to since her birth.
Whether she wanted a marriage or not. Whether she wanted to service a man’s fantasies...or not.
“No.” His voice sounded thoughtful, but Joy was so lost in her own thoughts she could hardly think about why.
“Jo!” Virginia squealed, from where she stood with Lara. “Did you hear? Pariah’s coming home. Tomorrow!”
Pariah! She would know what to do. She would understand Joy’s dilemma of wanting the sexy Freijian, but not wanting to be a slut by sleeping with the same man who’d kill her. A smile broke out across her face before she could control it.
“How do you know the Madonna of the Puritans?” Rojan’s voice was cold. “I thought you were human?” In his arms, Lily began to scream.
